


When Pepper met Peter

by tentitoo



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Peter and Pepper have dinner together, Protective Pepper Potts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 15:50:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21322738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tentitoo/pseuds/tentitoo
Summary: Pepper sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Only Tony could be on the opposite side of the country and still manage to cause her trouble! She considered the facts: it’s a school night, it’s already past 7:30 PM, the kid has been driven two hours upstate and has been waiting outside over an hour. She couldn’t, in good conscience, send Peter away withoutat leastfeeding him.Or, Peter and Pepper have dinner and become good friends.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 20
Kudos: 416





	When Pepper met Peter

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone!  
While I'm no stranger to this website this will be my induction into the Marvel universe. My only knowledge of this universe comes from the MCU movies so if this goes against any comic canon I apologize in advance. This fic was completely self-indulgent because I love Peter Parker and think that Pepper Potts is amazing and there aren't many fics solely focused on their relationship. This story takes place after Homecoming and before infinity War.
> 
> For all my new readers I'd also like to let you know that English is not my first language and that this fic hasn't been beta'd so, if you find any grammar or spelling mistakes, please do let me know so I can correct them and provide you with a better reading experience!
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!

It was the first time in months that Pepper actually managed to finish all her work (and part of Tony’s paperwork) before 8 PM. On top of that Tony had been called in to solve an emergency at one of their west coast facilities so she had their apartment all to herself, which meant pamper night – her favorite nights despite being extremely rare.

“Welcome home Miss Potts,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. greeted. “I hope you had a pleasant day at work.”

Pepper set down her bag at its designated spot at the entrance and smiled. She hadn’t been the biggest fan of the AI when Tony first installed her around their apartment, but she had grown used to her as time went by. F.R.I.D.A.Y. was extremely competent, a characteristic she valued a lot, and usually took her side when Pepper and Tony had a disagreement.

“Hello F.R.I.D.A.Y., it was more stressful than pleasant, but I lived to tell you about it.”

“Well then, I’ll set the conditions necessary for a nice night in. Do you want me to order the usual takeaway from your favorite Italian?”

Pepper draped her suit jacket on the back of the couch, dropped down on the sofa and sighed contently.

“Yes, that would be lovely. Do you think I’ll have time for a warm bubble bath before the food arrives?”

“Without a doubt Miss Potts,” the AI assured her.

“Okay then, I’m going to run myself a bath while I wait. Just warn me a bit before the food arrives, can you do that for me F.R.I.D.A.Y.?”

“Certainly, Miss Potts.” There was a pause, “There’s just one topic I’d like to discuss with you before you proceed with your bath, is that alright?”

“Of course, shoot,” Pepper replied.

“What should I do about Mr. Parker? Should I send him away?”

Pepper furrowed her brows in confusion. Why would Tony’s kid be at the Compound?

“What do you mean, F.R.I.D.A.Y.?”

“Mr. Stark asked Mr. Parker to come to the Compound to work on some upgrades for his suit but he had to leave before Mr. Parker arrived,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. explained. “Mr. Parker has been waiting outside for over an hour. Should I tell him that Mr. Stark has left and that he should return home?”

“Are you telling me that Tony made the kid drive upstate and then ditched him?” Pepper asked incredulous.

“Long story short: yes, Miss Potts.”

Pepper sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Only Tony could be on the opposite side of the country and still manage to cause her trouble! She considered the facts: it’s a school night, it’s already past 7:30 PM, the kid has been driven two hours upstate and has been waiting outside over an hour. She couldn’t, in good conscience, send Peter away without _at least_ feeding him.

“How did Peter get here? Did Happy drive him?”

“As Head of Security Mr. Hogan was the first on site on the Malibu facility. Peter was driven here by one of the other drivers.”

“When you said Peter has been waiting outside–” Pepper trailed off dreading the answer.

“I mean he has been sitting at the Compound entrance chairs for approximately one hour and seventeen minutes.”

“At least it wasn’t literally outside so there’s that…” Pepper commented sarcastically.

“What should I do then, Miss Potts?”

“Ask Peter to come to the apartment and on the way here ask him what he wants for dinner and order it as well. Also, please call Tony.”

“Certainly, Miss Potts,” the AI replied and was replaced by a dialing sound.

Pepper got up and went to the kitchen to take out the plates and cutlery necessary to set a table for two. Tony finally picked up after the sixth ring and his smiling face appeared on a holographic display in front of the cabinets.

“Hello, my beautiful fiancé! To what do I owe the pleasure of this phone call?” he greeted cheerfully.

“It’s a school night Tony!” Pepper said in lieu of a proper greeting.

She would have placed her hands on her hips if they weren’t currently occupied with two plates and two sets of cutlery. Tony blinked owlishly at her, clearly not getting what she was trying to tell him.

“Uh… Yes, I guess it is, seeing it’s a Wednesday…”

“So now that we’ve establish that you know what day of the week it is. Tell me why Peter Parker has been waiting for you at the Compound for almost one hour and half!”

She set the plates down more harshly than needed making the cutlery clank against the china noisily. Tony flinched visibly was silent for a few seconds.

“Shit, I forgot about the kid…”

“Yes Tony, you forgot about your kid and it’s a school night!”

“I’ll call him to let him know that Jim will take him home immediately.”

Pepper huffed in annoyance as she finished setting the table and looked up again to glare at her fiancé.

“No, Tony!”

“What do you mean ‘no’? No as in don’t call Peter and send him home?” Tony looked as confused as he sounded, and Pepper made a huge effort not to roll her eyes at his antics.

“What I mean is you’re going to call Peter to apologize for making him come all his way here for no reason but he’s not going home until he has had some dinner. He’s a growing boy and I bet he hasn’t eaten anything since lunch so I’m not sending him on a two-hour drive back home without dinner!”

Tony chuckled on the other side of the line making Pepper seethe. She couldn’t for the life of her understand how Tony could even find this situation funny! Peter wasn’t at his beck and call, he didn’t work for Tony, and he probably had better things to do with his time!

“Calm down Mama Bear. I was going to tell Jim to stop by a McDonald’s or something like that and get the kid something to eat. I’m not that inconsiderate.”

“Well, you asked Peter to come here and then ditched him…” Pepper told him matter-of-factly not hiding how annoyed she was at him.

Pepper could see that Tony bristled at that comment.

“I didn’t _ditch_ him! I was called away on an emergency.”

“You were called away after lunch you could have called Peter to tell him he didn’t need to come after all. He drove two hours and has been sitting at the Compound entrance for almost an hour and a half. That’s three hours and half of his time he could have used to do something productive instead of waiting for you!”

“As soon as we finish this call I _swear_ I’m going to call him, Pep. I’ll tell him how sorry I am for wasting his time because I too preoccupied at the time to remember that we had agreed to work on his suit. It just completely slipped my mind…”

Pepper sighed deciding to give him a break.

“Okay fine… But you’re going to stop asking him to come to the Compound unless it’s either Friday or the weekend,” Pepper decided then and there. When she saw Tony opening his mouth to argue she added, “If you really _must_ meet him during the week or there’s an emergency, he can come to the Manhattan penthouse and work with you on that small lab of yours.”

Tony grimaced.

“That lab is just for tinkering, it isn’t prepared for that kind of work…”

“Well, then you fly him by helicopter to the Compound. I don’t care, Tony! This just can’t happen again.”

“Okay, fine! It’s a deal.”

Pepper heard a knock on the apartment door and saw a small message from F.R.I.D.A.Y. at the bottom of the screen announcing that Peter Parker was at the door.

“Also, I just remembered but call his aunt to apologize as well and tell her he’s staying for dinner.”

“Pep, she’s super scary when angry. Maybe you could–”

“Just call his aunt, Tony!” Pepper interrupted him before he could finish his sentence. “Peter’s at the door, we’ll talk later.”

Pepper terminated the call before Tony could complain any further and opened the door. She had seen the kid before in passing but had never actually _met_ him. He somehow looked younger than she remembered.

“You must be Peter, it’s nice to finally meet you,” she greeted with a smile.

Peter fumbled slightly with the earbuds coming out of his too big Midtown School of Science & Technology hoodie looking a bit confused.

“Hm… Hi, Miss Potts! I thought Mr. Stark would… I mean – it’s really nice to meet you as well!”

“Pepper’s fine,” she told him moving aside to let him in.

Peter nodded and followed her inside. Pepper had always assumed Tony had brought Peter to their apartment before but from the way he was looking around she might have been wrong.

“I’m sorry you were kept waiting for so long. I know you were expecting Tony, but he was called away on an emergency and forgot to warn you. I feel terrible for all of this!”

Peter who had been looking a bit nervous until now smiled shyly.

“It’s okay Miss Pepper. I’m sure it was more important than some upgrades.”

Pepper thought about telling him to drop the Miss but if after all those months working with Tony, he was still Mr. Stark (something he complained about regularly) she doubted Peter would ever call her anything other than Miss Pepper. It was still better than Miss Potts.

“It was, but it’s still not an excuse for wasting your time.”

Peter just shrugged nervously and for the first time in a while Pepper felt a bit out of her depth. She wanted Peter to feel at ease, but she had absolutely no clue how to interact with teenagers. Then again, Tony was basically a big kid and she could handle him…

“Why don’t you set down your backpack and get comfortable? I’m sure our food will be here shortly,” Pepper settled on.

Peter froze on the spot.

“O-our food?”

“Yes. F.R.I.D.A.Y. did ask what you wanted for dinner, right?”

“She did but I assumed I’d been eating on my way home in the car.”

Pepper shook her head almost indignantly.

“Of course not, especially after you had to wait for so long!”

“It really is fine Miss Pepper. I managed not only to get all this week’s homework done but also got a head start on next week’s so… I can get out of your hair. I’m sure you have better thing to do than have dinner with me.”

Pepper chuckled.

“I was going to have dinner whether you joined me or not. Now I at least have some company.”

Before Peter could reply his phone started ringing, or rather yodeling. He flushed red and looked at Pepper.

“It’s Mr. Stark,” he informed her.

“It’s okay, you can answer. I’ll be right back.”

Pepper left him in the living room and went to the bedroom, she debated on changing from her dress to some lounge wear then decided against it. In the end she just took off her makeup, she always felt better with a fresh face. When she returned to the living room, Pepper saw Peter putting the takeaway on their plates.

“I’m sorry. F.R.I.D.A.Y. told me the food had arrived, so I thought I’d just…” Peter trailed off awkwardly.

“It’s fine Peter, you don’t need to apologize all the time.”

“Yeah I know. Mr. Stark keeps telling me that, but I always feel like I’m imposing.”

Pepper smiled gently and took her usual seat gesturing Peter to take Tony’s.

“Well, you’re not. I invited you for dinner, didn’t I?”

“You did, and apparently Aunt May has already been warned I’d be home a little later than usual,” Peter said.

“She has? Well, I’m glad to hear that for once in his life Tony actually did something I asked him to do.”

Peter chuckled and Pepper felt a weight come off her shoulders. Peter was clearly felling more at ease now. They started eating in companionable silence. Pepper had opted for her usual pasta dish from her and Tony’s favorite Italian restaurant while Peter had opted for Thai and had enough boxes to feed three people at least.

“So, Peter care to tell me more about yourself? Tony speaks about you all the time, but I’d rather hear it straight from the source.”

“He does?” he sounded skeptical.

“Just the good things, don’t worry,” Peeper assured him with a playful wink.

Peter smiled in response.

“Well, I’m currently a sophomore at Midtown High.”

“That’s a STEM school, right?” Peter nodded. “Do you have any extracurriculars?”

“Just the Academic Decathlon. I was in the robotics lab and the marching band, but I quit those to have more time for my… hm… ‘internship’ as I call it.”

“By that you mean your Spider-Man activities, right?”

Peter nodded again and Pepper stopped eating momentarily.

“I was just thinking… You usually help Tony around the lab at least once a week, right?”

“It’s not every week but it has been more frequent since November of last year. We mostly work on upgrades for my suit, but we sometimes work on one of his pet projects.”

“Don’t you get extra credit if you have an internship?”

“I think so, but I don’t think patrolling as Spider-Man really counts as an internship.”

“That’s true but working on a lab with Tony does. We could make your internship official. I could probably have the paperwork done by Friday.”

Peter looked properly excited now.

“You could? Oh my god! Wow, Miss Pepper that would be so awesome!”

Pepper couldn’t help but smile at Peter’s excitement.

“Of course! It’s only fair seeing how time consuming it actually is to work with Tony.”

“I don’t really mind it. I love it, actually!”

“Just for putting up with Tony you deserve to at least get extra credit.”

“You know, people at school don’t really believe I work with Mr. Stark. I’m pretty sure the teachers don’t believe it either, so it’d be really cool to actually have physical proof,” his excitement dimmed a bit with that statement. Despite his nonchalant tone Pepper could tell it was sore topic for Peter. “I mean if I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t believe it either. What in the world would the amazing Tony Stark want with some random kid from Queens, right?”

It was Peter’s small self-deprecating laugh at the end that got Pepper.

“Firstly, Tony isn’t as amazing as you think he is and secondly that’s not true,” Pepper told him gently. Peter didn’t quite reply, he just looked down at his food, so Pepper proceeded, “When Tony told me he had recruited a 14-year-old kid to fight against the Avengers I was furious with him for putting you in harm’s way. It was one of the most idiotic things he has done to this day and believe me he has done a lot of idiotic things in his life. I think that’s partly why Tony kept you at an arm’s length after that, but then the whole Vulture thing happened…

“He was really impressed with you the first time you two ever met, you know? Whatever you said to Tony really resonated with him. And after the Vulture incident he was even more impressed, so he decided that you’d probably benefit more from a proper suit, proper training and mentoring rather than going off on your own with a homemade suit. So no, Peter, you’re not just some random kid from Queens. You’re special.”

“Was he really that impressed with me? I know I saved his plane and his stuff, but I almost destroyed Coney Island in the process.”

“Peter, you’re aware that he actually meant it when he wanted to give you the Iron Spider suit and present Spider-Man as an official Avenger to the press, right?”

“_What_?” Peter sputtered. “No, that can’t be! Mr. Stark said it was a just test and that I passed! He said that the press conference was to announce your engagement all along!”

Pepper quirked an eyebrow at him and Peter looked at her slack jawed as the reality of what had really transpired downed on him.

“In a way I have you to thank for my engagement,” she joked.

“Oh my god… Oh my god! I’m freaking out right now, Miss Pepper… I’ll probably never be an Avenger now!”

Pepper laughed.

“Don’t worry, Peter. Just because you said no for now it doesn’t mean you won’t become one in the future. You made a really mature decision at the time and you’ll get inducted into the Avengers once you’re actually ready to become one, it wasn’t a one-time deal.”

Peter sighed looking relieved.

“I hope you’re right, Miss Pepper.”

“As you get to know me better Peter, you’ll find out that I’m always right.”

“Mr. Stark says you’re only right 87% of the time but F.R.I.D.A.Y. always corrects him and tells him it’s more like 98% of the time.”

“Always trust F.R.I.D.A.Y. rather than Tony.”

“I will keep that advice in mind, Miss Pepper,” Peter assured her with a laugh.

As the dinner progressed so did their conversation. Peter told Pepper about his classes, about Ned, MJ and his Aunt May and about his adventures as Spider-Man. Pepper told Peter about her work as the CEO of _Stark Industries_, explained him how their different facilities and R&D labs worked and how his internship would proceed.

It was nearly 9:30 PM when they Pepper checked her watch having finished eating the ice cream she had found hidden at the back of the fridge.

“Oh no… I lost track of time. It’s so late already!”

“Don’t worry Miss Pepper, I’ll shorten my patrol tonight to compensate for the time it’ll take to drive back to Queens.”

Pepper frowned and then smiled slightly remembering her conversation with Tony before Peter arrived for dinner.

“Have you ever rode on a helicopter before?”

Peter’s eyes widened.

“No…”

“Well, you’re about to. I’ll have someone fly you back to the city, it’ll only take between thirty to forty-five minutes instead of the usual two hours.”

“I really don’t mind driving there. There’s no need to get a helicopter just for that.”

“Nonsense, the company’s helicopter is parked outside on the heliport and we rarely use it. Let me do this one thing for you.”

“The internship is already enough, Miss Pepper,” Peter assured her, but Pepper clicked her tongue at him.

“I’m not taking no for an answer so go get your things and make sure you have all your homework. I’m going to call the pilot.”

Peter sighed resigned.

“Thank you, Miss Pepper.”

“Don’t thank me, just promise me that you’ll come for dinner more often. Maybe next time May can come as well. I’d love to meet the other woman in the world capable of putting Tony in his place just by yelling at him.”

“What about Black Widow?”

“Nat doesn’t count. She doesn’t speak, she just kicks his ass.”

Pepper just smiled at Peter’s disbelief that someone would be on first name basis with Natasha Romanoff and grabbed her phone to call the service pilot.

* * *

Tony was reading on his side of the bed when Pepper woke up the next morning.

“When did you get here?” she asked rubbing the sleep away from her eyes.

“Mm… Just shy of 4 AM.”

“You should be sleeping,” Pepper informed him and rolled over to lay on Tony’s chest.

Tony immediately put away his book, pulled her closer to him and started combing his fingers through her hair.

“I like you in the mornings. You’re so compliant,” he commented kissing the top of her head.

Pepper rolled her eyes but her smile and the way she kept stroking the scar on his chest from where the arc reactor used to be told Tony she wasn’t really annoyed at him.

“So how was dinner with the kid?”

“Peter’s something else.”

“Aha! I knew the kid would have you wrapped around his finger by the time you were done with dinner.”

Pepper didn’t deny it.

“I had him flown home by helicopter,” she confessed.

“Oh my god Pep, you’re even worse than me!” Tony said with a laugh.

That earned him an indignant huff and a small jab to his ribs.

“As if you’re any better... You never shut up about him.”

“Well, I like him.”

Pepper hummed in agreement.

“Peter’s very likable.”

“Indeed, he his.”

They fell silent and cuddled until F.R.I.D.A.Y. warned Pepper that she’d have to leave soon in order to escape the morning rush back to the city. Pepper reluctantly got up and started to get ready. In her absence Tony dozed off only stirring when Pepper kissed him goodbye.

“I don’t want you to go…” he whined grabbing her hand.

“Just get some sleep and when you wake up call me. We have to go over the terms of Peter’s internship so I can draft the papers he needs for school.”

Tony looked at her sleepily.

“The what now?”

“Peter’s internship with you,” she explained patiently. “Seeing you keep asking him to work on the lab with you I thought that we might as well make it official so the kid can get extra credit for school.”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

“Of course it is, it was mine after all,” Pepper replied with a smile and squeezed his hand. “Call me when you’re a bit more coherent so we can discuss it.”

Tony was out again before Pepper even exited the room.

* * *

Peter was called to Principal Morita’s office during his third period that same Friday.

Everyone knew that getting called to the Principal’s office was rarely a good sign. Usually you were either in big trouble or something bad had happened. Peter was sure he wasn’t in any trouble, at least that he knew of… He had been so good recently! He had been on time every morning, hadn’t skipped any classes, had turned in all his homework and essays on time and managed to get his GPA back to the perfect 4.0. Therefore, the only option left was bad news… His thoughts turned to May for a brief second, but he refused to entertain the idea that something might have happened to her.

When he finally reached the office and saw a familiar face through the window his heart rate finally began to slow down. If Pepper Potts was at his school, it was most likely the third and rare option of good news. Either that or something had happened to Tony, but she was smiling so for now and until proven wrong he was going with the third option.

Peter knocked on the door and waited for permission to get in.

“Mr. Parker, please take a seat.” Principal Morita said gesturing the only empty chair in the office.

“Hello Peter,” Pepper greeted as he took the seat next to her.

“Hello Miss Pepper,” he replied politely.

Pepper smiled at him and Peter sat in silence wondering if he should say anything or wait for someone to explain to him what was happening. Principal Morita finally decided to have pity on him and broke the silence.

“Mr. Parker, you might be wondering why I called you here,” he began, and Peter nodded. The suspense was killing him. “I’ll cut to the chase: Miss Potts came by to deliver your internship papers and according to these papers you’ve been interning with Mr. Stark since May of last year. Why didn’t you give me these papers sooner?”

“I wasn’t aware I could get extra credit from my internship until Miss Pepper told me I could,” he said with a small shrug.

It wasn’t exactly a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either. Peter didn’t really count his Spider-Man activities as a proper internship despite Mr. Stark having first recruited him in May of last year for a ‘stark internship retreat’. He only started going to Tony’s lab in November like he told Pepper but apparently, she had decided to go with May for his papers.

“Okay, very well. I just called you in because in light of this I have to add almost a year’s worth of extra credits to your engineering, physics, robotics and chemistry classes and I didn’t want you to be confused about the eventual changes to your grades.”

“Oh, okay.”

“I also wanted to let you know that with all the extra credit you could possibly apply for an early graduation, if you wished to do so.”

Peter turned to Pepper and she smiled at him excitedly.

“How early are we talking about?” Peter wanted to know.

“I think it might be a bit too late to graduate this year. But if you attend summer classes and take a couple extra exams you could graduate either next semester or at the end of your Junior year.”

“Do I have to decide right now?”

Principal Morita shook his head.

“No Mr. Parker, I just wanted you to know what your options are so you can make the choice that suits you best. However, you need to decide before summer school begins, obviously. So talk with your Aunt and let me know what you decide.”

“Okay, I’ll do just that sir.”

“If you do decide to graduate early let me know as soon as possible so we can arrange an appointment with your Aunt and the guidance counselor and make a schedule that works for you.”

“We’ll also schedule your internship accordingly if you choose to take on the extra work. Tony doesn’t want to lose his personal intern even if you have to cut back a bit on your hours,” Pepper assured him.

Peter thanked her hoping his smile conveyed how grateful he really was.

“I guess that was all I had to discuss with you Mr. Parker. You can return to your class now.”

Peter nodded and got up.

“Thank you, sir.”

“I’ll walk you out,” Pepper told him. “It was really nice to meet you Principal Morita.”

Pepper shook hands with the Principal and followed Peter outside. Once there, Pepper took a manila folder from her bag and handed it to Peter.

“This is a duplicate of the internship documentation so you can put it in your CV. You’ll probably need it when you’re applying for colleges,” she explained. “Even though Tony keeps saying he’ll get you into MIT as soon as you say the word, you’re allowed to choose other places.”

Instead of replying Peter just hugged her, taking Pepper by surprise.

“Oh my god Miss Pepper, you’re amazing!”

Pepper laughed and hugged Peter back.

“There’s no need for that. I just did exactly what I told I’d do and made your internship official.”

“Yeah I know!”

“So, you’re just excited about graduating early?”

Peter shook his head still hugging her.

“I don’t know if I want to do that. I’ll have to talk with May about it.”

“Then why am I being the recipient of the best and longest hug in the history of hugs?”

Peter laughed and let her go. Pepper was already missing his hug.

“I usually don’t care that much when people don’t believe me, but it’ll feel good to be able to prove them wrong,” he confessed and looked contrite for it.

Pepper sighed and combed Peter’s hair away from his face.

“You’re too humble Peter,” she told him.

He just shrugged. Pepper had come to realize this was Peter go to response for ‘_I don’t know what to reply’_. She checked her watch and sighed.

“Well Peter, while it was delightful to see you again, I need to get back. I have a meeting in half an hour, and you have a class to get back to.”

“Before you go, May told me she’s free this Sunday. Perhaps we could meet for lunch?”

“I’m pretty sure we’re free Sunday but I’ll let you know once I get ahold of Tony,” Pepper assured him with a smile.

“Bye, Miss Pepper.”

“See you soon, Peter.”

Pepper just couldn’t wait to see Peter again.


End file.
